Two recent attacks on teenagers on school property were recorded and the footage was uploaded to the Internet. While there are distinct school rules in place for the teenagers who perpetrated the attacks, there is little protocol or punishment for the students who record such attacks and put them online. The parents of the victims want those teenagers punished as well.

From the article:
“This is very, very complicated,” said University of Florida law professor Lyrissa Lidsky, who co-wrote a paper on cyberbullying law last year in the Missouri Law Review. “Free speech can be upsetting. It can inflict psychological distress.”

Fans who were injured at a NASCAR race after debris from a crashed car flew into the crowd are exploring the possibility of a lawsuit against NASCAR for damages. Some argue that fans assume a certain amount of risk by attending a race, while others disagree.

From the article:

“If it’s just something written on the back of the ticket and not called to the attention of the person purchasing, there’s reason to believe many courts in Florida won’t hold that they consented efficiently,” said University of Florida emeritus law professor Joseph Little.

Advocacy groups are becoming more vocal about revising a military divorce law that allows ex-spouses of members of the military up to half of their retirement. Opponents to the law say it is not fair to the military members who give so much to their country.

From the article:
“A lot of people, civilian and military, feel they have been treated unfairly in the divorce process. That’s not new,” Diane Mazur, a law professor with the University of Florida, tells Newsmax. “The military angle puts a different spin on things because both sides have an extra reason to think they’ve been wronged, or an extra reason to think they deserve special treatment.”

Mazur commented in this article that looks at how the Obama administration’s decision to lift the ban on women in combat has opened the door for women between the ages of 18 and 25 to register for a military draft.

From the article:
Now that front-line infantry, armor, artillery and special operations jobs are open to female volunteers who can meet the physical requirements, it will be difficult for anyone to make a persuasive argument that women should continue to be exempt from registration, said Diane Mazur, a law professor at the University of Florida and a former Air Force officer.

“They’re going to have to show that excluding women from the draft actually improves military readiness,” Mazur said. “I just don’t see how you can make that argument.”

Nagan wrote an op-ed article that shines a light on the oppressive conditions members of the Baha’i faith are living under in Iran, including the imprisonment of new mothers and their infants because of their religious beliefs.

From the article:
What could motivate the state to so blatantly violate international norms by sanctioning the imprisonment of infants? Has religious prejudice gone so far as to extinguish any feeling of empathy or, for that matter, shame?

Historically, human rights abuses in Iran have been monitored closely by the U.S. government as well as the international community, and this year is no different.

Rawls commented in this story that covered the Josiah T. Walls Bar Association Law and Justice Youth Conference, co-sponsored by UF Law.

From the story:
“Think about prevention and trying to keep our kids out of the system, these are the things that help them. That when they can truly understand what the law means and why the law is there it really gives them an opportunity that when they have a choice, if that choice is to make a decision that’s going to take them down a bad track or a positive track, they’re going to make the right decision.”

Michael Allan WolfRichard E. Nelson Chair in Local Government Law

On Feb. 28, Wolf presented a talk on “The Brooding Omnipresence of Regulatory Takings: Urban Origins and Effects,” at “What Is Urban Law Today? A Symposium on the Field’s Past, Present, and Future in Honor of the Urban Law Journal’s 40th Anniversary,” at Fordham Law School in New York.

The article reports on a group of people who gathered last month at the Bo Diddley Community Plaza to commemorate Trayvon Martin’s death. Worrell addressed the report she presented to Florida’s Stand Your Ground task force assembled by Gov. Rick Scott.

From the article:
Monique Haughton Worrell, a UF law professor and director of UF’s Levin College of Law’s Criminal Defense Clinic, presented a report to the 19-member task force in September that aimed to determine the impact of the law since its passage in 2005.

Worrell concluded there wasn’t enough data to find any solid connections between the law and its effect on Floridians.

“From the meetings that I attended while in South Florida, the public opinion was overwhelmingly against ‘stand your ground’ laws,” she said.

Wentong ZhengAssistant Professor of Law

On March 1, Zheng participated in a roundtable discussion at the White House on challenges posed by state-owned enterprises for international trade and investment. The roundtable discussion was hosted by the National Economic Council and the U.S. Department of Commerce and was joined by a group of prominent scholars and policymakers.